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“Really?” He looked down at our joined hands and smiled at them before looking back up at me. “I’m surprised. He seems so laid back.”
“Don’t let him fool you. He gets very stressy when it’s time to do his year-end accounts.”
“He seems like a nice guy, though.”
I waved him off. “He’s okay.”
When Zak smiled at me, my heart started to beat so fast I felt like I’d run a marathon. I was full of nervous energy and could feel it edging into my fingers. Fingers that he was holding onto, so I gently pulled them from his. He frowned and then looked down at my hand as I slid it towards me.
“Don’t you like PDA’s?” he asked.
Pushing both shaking hands under my thighs, I shrugged. “I don’t mind them.”
“I was enjoying it. Holding your hand. I liked it.” He pouted and then grinned, holding out his hand, palm up. “Come on then, give it to me.”
“What?”
“Your hand,” he said with his eyebrows raised. “I’d like to hold it. If that’s okay with you.” He leaned closer and whispered, “Is that okay with you?”
Biting on my top lip, I nodded and gave him back my hand. He linked our fingers again and then lifted them, resting his elbow on the table. Everything inside of me felt… strange, fizzy almost.
“You have really soft skin,” he said, stroking my palm, tickling it and making me squirm. He grinned mischievously. “Oh, I forgot that you’re ticklish. I’ll stop.”
The instant that he stopped doing it, I wished I wasn’t, because I’d liked it. Relief came, though, when he started to rub my thumb instead.
“Better?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “That doesn’t tickle at all.”
“Good.” He moved his head closer to mine and gave me the slightest of kisses, yet my heart almost exploded with the surge of adrenalin that it created. “So, any idea where you want to go after here?”
“My house?” I suggested, without thinking.
Zak blinked slowly. “Your dad isn’t home. Are you sure?”
I had no idea whether I was or not, I just knew I wasn’t ready to say goodnight to him. I wanted to spend more time with him, talking to him, looking at him.
“Yes, it’ll be fine. It’s not like we’re going to raid his drink cabinet or anything. Not that he has a drink cabinet.”
His shoulders shook as he laughed. “What does it say about my parents that they do?”
“That they’re more grown up than my dad.”
“How old is he, by the way?”
“Thirty-seven. What about your mum and dad?”
He thought about it for a couple of seconds. “I have to work it out from my age because I always forget.” After another briefpause he said, “Dad is fifty-five, and Mum is forty-nine. They met at some sort of medical exhibition and were married six months later and had me a year after that.”
“A bit older than my parents then.” I didn’t really care that they were only young. Dad had proved that age and experience didn’t mean you made a better parent, but I knew some people still judged him for being a young parent.
“I just think they were both tied up with their careers, but Mum always says that if she had her time again she’d have had children younger. Says she’d have like to have had more than two.”
“And what does your dad say about that?” I asked, grinning.
Zak gave a quiet laugh. “He says she couldn’t have because she hadn’t met him, the love of her life. Although, I do think he’d have liked a couple more, too. I think they tried between me and Amelia, but it didn’t happen.” He frowned. “I have a feeling Mum might have had a couple of miscarriages, but she never mentions it. What about you? Do you miss having brothers or sisters?”
“I’ve never thought about it to be honest. It was always just me and Dad, and he did everything he could to make sure that I didn’t feel any different to my friends. I think that was why he encouraged me and Liam to be friends. It felt like Liam and his mum and dad were family. My dad and Liam’s dad have known each other for years. They were neighbours when my dad moved here. So it’s always been like I had an auntie, an uncle, and a cousin.”
